Bonus Stage

Bonus Stages (ボーナス ステージ, Boonasu Suteeji) are common throughout the Street Fighter and Final Fight series, usually after a set amount of fights or rounds in the single-player mode. Though they are not optional, these stages are solely purposed for gaining additional points to achieve a high score, as the player cannot lose the game in those stages.

Making their first appearance in the original Street Fighter with Ryu or Ken breaking tiles, bonus stages have gone on to be a regular feature in most games in the series.

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In the original Street Fighter, there were four different bonus stages throughout the single-player mode:

Ryu completing a tile breaker in a bonus stage.

The first stage consists of a tile breaking game that required the player to press the punch button at the maximum strength of the "timing" bar. If successful, they would give the stack of nine tiles a fierce karate chop, breaking them and receiving cheers from the crowd. Failure to do so would result in Ryu or Ken hurting their hand, the crowd booing them, and loss of the bonus round.

The second stage consists of a wood breaking game where players had to quickly break three planks of wood being held by three men. The men stand at different heights, with two on the left side (one crouching and the other perched upon his shoulders) and the third standing at the right side.

The third stage is identical to the first round, with the exception of Ryu or Ken attempting to break three concrete blocks rather than tiles.

The fourth stage is identical to the second round, with the exception of having to break four planks instead of three. The four men of this stage are aligned like the original two on the left side from the second stage, so on either side of the room a man crouches with a plank and another man stands upon his shoulders with another plank.

In the Street Fighter II series, bonus stages consisted of beating up various inanimate objects. The order and number of stages vary per re-release:

Taking after Final Fight, the first stage presented players with a car that must be destroyed in under 40 seconds, although unlike Final Fight, no weapons are provided. Each hit to the car awards 100 points, and if all hits are landed successfully a maximum of 24400 points will be awarded along with 100 points per second left on the clock and a bonus 30,000 points for achieving a "perfect" round. Players must destroy the left side of the car (the window will be smashed to confirm it), then the right side, and then the body of the car from either side. The car bears an extremely strong resemblance to the first generation Toyota Celsior (Lexus LS400 outside of Japan) which was produced from 1990–1994. The bonus stage takes place in a port town in the United States, and the stage is similar to Ken's stage, Battle Harbor; there are no tie-breakers in this bonus stage if 2 players join in. In the storyline, a man takes cars that do not sell and offers prize money for those who manage to break a car within a time limit with their bare hands for $10 per try. The idea unexpectedly became a big hit, with many people going to the harbor to give it a try.[1]

In the arcade release, the second stage is widely considered the most difficult and annoying bonus round, involves the player(s) waiting below a conveyor belt for barrels to drop down from above, and each must be broken using any attack. At first glance there appears to be a 20-second timer, though it is actually a count for how many barrels are left. Players must smash the barrels as they land to gain 1000 points each, which adds up to 20,000 points if all are broken. This combined with the 30,000 point "perfect" bonus will award the maximum score of 50,000. Given no time limit, the round is much more of an endurance bonus game than a race against the clock as was the case for the previous round (occasionally, there is a tie breaker in this bonus stage to get 10000 each depending on how many tries it takes to hit a barrel on a 2 player basis). This was the third and last bonus stage in the 16-bit versions and second stage is now a wall-of-brick smashing bonus game (as explained below).

The third stage featured a pyramid made of oil drum cans set on fire. The player had to destroy it within 40 seconds, and oil drums would sometimes release fire, burning the player. There is always a draw when two players join in. It was replaced with a wall-of-brick smashing bonus game. This bonus stage appears to be set in Zangief's stage, but outdoors (see below). Most challengers end in the hospital.[1]

When tie-breaker, the two players normally score 9000 each.

The 16-bit versions of SFII (SNES and Genesis) featured a wall of bricks (first bonus round in SFII, second in SFII Turbo and SSFII). Assembled in a pyramid-like fashion, players are tasked with destroying the blocks in under 40 seconds. The brick wall actually consists of four different "sections": The left side, top, center, and right. Players are awarded 100 points per hit along with a bonus for taking out each section, and all four sections must be demolished to achieve a "perfect" bonus of 30,000 points and 100 points per second left on the clock. Also, there is always a tie-breaker in this bonus stage as well.

Yet again, tie-breakers can give the two players 6800 each maximum.

In the Dreamcast version of Super Street Fighter II X, there is a trick where if bonus stages are enabled and the player puts the cursor over a question mark during the stage select and holds down the start button when selecting the question mark, there is a chance the battle may be replaced with a two player bonus round.

Car breaking bonus stage

Barrel breaking bonus stage

Metal barrels bonus stage

The result if 2 players complete the Metal barrels bonus stage with the same score

The bonus stages of the Street Fighter III series are comprised of a familiar scenario and an all-new bonus stage to showcase the "Parry" system:

In the first stage players are given 50 seconds to destroy an SUV, a spiritual successor to SFII's similar car-smashing game. Players will get different amounts of points depending on what sections of the car they destroy (individual hits don't give any credit, a chunk must be removed for credit). Around 83,000 points can be earned for destroying the car, along with a 30,000 "perfect" bonus and 1000 points per how many seconds are left on the clock.

In the second stage the player attempts to deflect basketballs thrown by Sean by parrying them. The player will earn 1,000 points for each basketball deflected in this way; if all are deflected they add up to 20,000 points, and an additional 120,000 points are awarded for a "perfect" round. In Third Strike, how they are thrown is dependent on Levels determined by how well of a ranking average the player has strung by matches prior; the better the ranking averages, the more complex and complicated the basketballs are thrown.

Bonus Stages were absent from Street Fighter IV but make their return in its two updates, Super Street Fighter IV and Ultra Street Fighter IV. These stages are modeled after the car and barrel stages from Super Street Fighter II; however, the Car Crusher stage (now with a 60-second time limit) is more reminiscent of the first bonus stage present in the original Final Fight, where the car is placed in an abandoned gas station in the same area of the "North America: Drive-in At Night" stage. If a "Perfect" score is achieved in the Car Crusher stage with Guy, Cody, Poison, Hugo or Rolento (all from the Final Fight series), Bred will stagger on-screen at the end, fall to his knees and cry "Oh, my car!" in despair, much like it happened in the original game. As for the Barrel Buster stage, it takes place at the same Scottish brewery of the "Europe: Historic Distillery" stage, with a worker handling the influx of barrels.

A bonus stage appears in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. The player is tasked with breaking twenty barrels as they plummet into the center of the screen from conveyer belts above. The player also has help from a computer-controlled character who will keep the barrels in the center using his/her own move set. Two P appears as a CPU opponent.

The first bonus stage presented players with a car that must be broken in under 30 seconds. Each hit to the car awards 1,000 points, and if all hits are landed successfully a maximum of 33,000 points will be awarded along with 500 points per second left on the clock and a bonus 20,000 points for achieving a "perfect" round. Players must destroy the left side of the car (the window will be smashed to confirm it), then the right side, and then the body of the car from either side. A tire is lying on the ground and can be used. If the car is totally destroyed (a "perfect" score), Bred (or Dug in the Game Boy Advance version) will appear, exclaim "Oh! My God!!", and then fall to his knees crying. In some versions of the game, the playable character(s) will walk off-screen to the next level before Bred shows up. In most of the localized console releases, Bred's line was changed to "Oh! My car!!", but was changed back in Final Fight Double Impact.[2]

The second bonus stage featured a series of glass panes hanging suspended from the ceiling which the player must break within 20 seconds. Each pane is worth 1,100 points, and if all hits are landed successfully a maximum of 177,000 points will be awarded along with 500 points per second left on the clock and a bonus 20,000 points for achieving a "perfect" round. [3]

The game has two identical Bonus Stages in the end of Rounds 2 and 4, where twenty oil drums will appear rolling, some of them bouncing. In the second Bonus Stage some drums will also fall from the top of the screen. The player is rewarded depending of how many drums are destroyed:

As with the first Final Fight, the first bonus stage presented players with an SUV that must be destroyed in under 30 seconds. Each hit to the SUV awards 1,000 points, and if all hits are landed successfully a maximum of 33,000 points will be awarded along with 500 points per second left on the clock and a bonus 20,000 points for achieving a "perfect" round. Players must destroy the left side of the SUV (the window will be smashed to confirm it), then the right side, and then the body of the SUV from either side. Improvised weapons are lying on the ground and can be used.[4]

The second bonus stage featured a series of metal oil drums which the player must break within 30 seconds. Each drum is worth 2,000 points, and if all hits are landed successfully a maximum of 38,000 points will be awarded along with 500 points per second left on the clock and a bonus 20,000 points for achieving a "perfect" round. Complicating the matter is the fact that the drums sporadically ignite in flames, which immolate the player if he or she attacks while the fire is burning.[4]

The first bonus stage has a bulldozer (named Bull in-game) operated by Billy pushing the players, and it must be destroyed before time runs out by jumping and hitting Billy. If not successful, one of the playable characters that wasn't selected will appear to save the other characters. This stage only appears if the player took the path that leads to battle against Drake.

In the second bonus stage the player has a limited time to reach and destroy a Computer in the end of the area while avoiding rolling oil drums. Some of the drums have flames and will explode if hit. A few of the drums near the end of the area usually drop an 1UP when destroyed.

A barrel bonus stage based on the one from Street Fighter II was added by Arika due to the request from Capcom. It is unlockable in the PlayStation version. It is largely the same as the barrel bonus stage in the Street Fighter II games, except that the barrels come from four directions (from the left, right, up-left and up-right corners) and vary in color, speed and number of hits needed to break them. Breaking them in succession grants more points, and using a Guard Break on a barrel will cause it to spin in place, giving the player more time to hit it. The player must break as many barrels as possible in a limited amount of time, and special bonuses are granted if no barrels are missed or if the player doesn't get hit.

This game features two Bonus Stages. The first one is Excel Break. In it, the player is given three Super Combo bars and has to knock down a dummy Cycloid. The dummy's health bar can only be depleted during an Excel Combo. If the player runs out of either time or SC Gauge power before Cycloid has been defeated, the bonus round is lost. If successful, the player will be granted free Excel for the next round (no bar cost).

The second bonus is Satellite Fall. The player has to destroy the falling "ARK-99" satellite as it floats above the Earth's surface, while also watching out for occasional falling meteorites. The player can get more points if the various parts of the satellite are broken off before destroying it, and also from destroying the meteorites. If not destroyed before the time runs out, then the satellite destroys the Earth and the player loses the bonus round. If the satellite is destroyed, the player is granted unlimited SC Gauge for 20 seconds during the next round (against Garuda), and after said timer expires, the player gets to keep a full charged SC Gauge to spend it normally.

The barrel bonus stage returns in the PlayStation version, being very similar in function to the previous game. When Excel is active, the barrels won't break as soon as they are hit, and will instead break when the Excel period ends. This allows the player to repeatedly hit the barrels while at the same time making them easier to break when there are many on-screen.

Along with the bonus stages, there is also an option to directly fight Bison II.

This "bonus stage" is only used during the end credits, where players can endure an endless wave of enemies in a 3D beat 'em up styled brawl. The player has unlimited meter and has to defeat as many opponents as possible. The enemies can fight back and even use special moves, but they are defeated in a few hits.